NY-23

Hoffman Radio Ad In NY-23 Makes Fun of Scozzafava Camp For Calling Police Against Reporter

Eric Kleefeld | October 22, 2009, 2:26PM

NY-23 Candidates Dede Scozzafava (R) and Doug Hoffman (Conservative)

Doug Hoffman, the Conservative Party candidate in the three-way NY-23 special election, has a new radio ad making fun of moderate Republican Dede Scozzafava's campaign for calling the police against Weekly Standard reporter John McCormack, who offended the campaign by following the candidate and asking her questions about her policy positions.

The ad is a comedic dramatization of a Scozzafava staffer calling 911. Here's a short excerpt:

[Audio recording static and telephone ringing sfx, male voice] 911, please state your emergency.

[Female voice, agitated] Yes, I work for Dede Scozzafava. A reporter just asked about her voting to increase taxes!

[911] I see the problem. Which of Scozzafava's 190 votes to raise taxes did the reporter ask about?

[CALLER] I don't know, I mean, she's been in Albany 10 years...

Listen to the whole thing. It's really funny.

Click To Play

NY-23

AP: Weekly Standard Reporter Didn't Yell At GOP Candidate In NY-23

Eric Kleefeld | October 21, 2009, 11:23AM

NY-23 Candidate Dede Scozzafava (R)

After the campaign of Dede Scozzafava, the Republican candidate in the three-way NY-23 special election, called the police against Weekly Standard reporter John McCormack, they accused him of screaming questions in her face -- an allegation that has now been disproven.

McCormack gave his audio recording to the Associated Press, and their judgement as a neutral third party is that he didn't yell:

In the audio recording of the reporter's questioning played for The Associated Press by McCormack, the reporter didn't raise his voice, but repeated his unanswered questions several times, including one about abortion.

"I never screamed, I never yelled, I never shouted," he said. "My voice was only loud enough so she could hear my questions."

NY-23

GOP Candidate's Husband Called Police Against Weekly Standard

Eric Kleefeld | October 20, 2009, 4:08PM

NY-23 Candidate Dede Scozzafava (R)

It has now been determined who it was on the Dede Scozzafava campaign, the moderate Republican in a three-way race with a Democrat and a Conservative Party candidate in NY-23 campaign, that called the police against Weekly Standard reporter John McCormack for following her and asking questions: Scozzafava's husband, Ron McDougall.

The Watertown Daily Times reports:

Ronald P. McDougall, shortly before 9 p.m., called county dispatchers from the Lowville Elks Lodge on Shady Avenue to request patrol for a nuisance report and hung up, according to a dispatch report of the incident. Upon a call back from dispatchers, Mr. McDougall identified himself and suggested the media was too close to his wife -- state Assemblywoman Dierdre K. Scozzafava, R-Gouverneur -- and that he was uncomfortable with a reporter.

"I think he was just pressing," village Police Chief Eric F. Fredenburg said of John McCormack, deputy online editor of the Weekly Standard, a conservative magazine.

NY-23

NY-23 GOP Campaign And Weekly Standard Feud: Read The E-mails

Eric Kleefeld | October 20, 2009, 2:50PM

NY-23 Candidate Dede Scozzafava (R)

The feud is heating up between the Weekly Standard and the Dede Scozzafava campaign -- the moderate Republican running in the three-way NY-23 special election -- with Scozzafava spokesman Matt Burns now forwarding to TPM e-mails between himself and the Standard, in a challenge to the magazine's journalistic objectivity.

The latest battle between the two camps involved the Scozzafava campaign calling the police against Standard reporter John McCormack, for following around their candidate and repeatedly asking her questions in a manner that they said showed "a complete lack of decency." Bill Kristol then characterized Scozzafava spokesman Matt Burns as the malevolent character, for having called their offices on Friday and yelled at them over a story. Now, Burns has sent us e-mails connected with that dust-up from last week.

"Last week, John wrote a story that falsely asserted Dede was something other than a life-long Republican," Burns wrote me. "He took that leap based upon the exchange below. How any objective reporter would take such a leap, I'll let you report and readers decide."

McCormack confirmed the authenticity of the e-mails to me. "I have no problem posting that e-mail exchange," McCormack said. "But it's a sign of a truly desperate campaign when they're forwarding e-mails to left-wing blogs, instead of talking about their own agenda, and unwilling to answer questions about where she stands on the issues."

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